CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: THE FIGHTING; British Set Guns Near Sarajevo But Serbs Keep On Shelling

About 300 British troops, the first members of the new United Nations rapid-reaction force, began positioning heavy guns on the slopes of Mount Igman above Sarajevo today, but their presence did not deter Bosnian Serbs from shelling the Bosnian capital.

The French Foreign Legion has an additional 500 troops, also heavily armed, joining the British, although not all of them will be deployed on Mount Igman.

The reinforcements will increase the firepower available to the United Nations troops, who are frequent targets of the Bosnian Serbs. Two French soldiers were killed on Saturday night, one in Sarajevo and one on Mount Igman, and another was seriously wounded.

Lieut. Col. Chris Vernon of the British force warned the Bosnian Serbs that if they strike, "we will hit you with slightly harder stuff than we hit you with before."

Concern mounted today among United Nations officials and Western diplomats over the scale of the fighting in Bihac. They warned that if the Bosnian Serb advance continued at the same pace, many of the 180,000 people could flee their homes and Croatia might be drawn into the war.

Control of the enclave would give the Serbs the vital communications, rail and road links in the region, melding the Serbian-held pocket of Croatia to the Serbs in Bosnia. Such a fusion would make it difficult for Croatia, which vows to crush the secessionist Serbian enclave, to reassert control over the quarter of its territory the rebel Serbs have controlled since the 1991 civil war.

Last weekend, at a meeting in the Croatian city of Split, President Franjo Tudjman met his Bosnian counterpart, President Alija Izetbegovic, and promised him military support in defending Bihac. A senior Bosnian Government official in Sarajevo hinted that Croatia had made concrete proposals to come to Bosnia's aid, saying, "The meeting in Split has produced more concrete results for us than all the U.N. conferences and resolutions combined."

[ In Washington, American officials said the Croats had massed several thousand troops for a possible attack on Serbian positions straddling the border between Bosnia and Croatia. American analysts said such an attack would be aimed at relieving the pressure on Bihac, which is being assaulted by rebel Serbs from Croatia, Bosnian Serbs and Muslims who have broken with the Sarajevo Government. ]

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[ Croatia is betting that the commitment of a few thousand troops will not be enough to provoke Serbia, by far the strongest military power in the region, to enter the war, the Washington officials said. They said the Croats were expected to try to take the town of Bosansko Grahovo as their first move. ]

The involvement of the Croatian Serbs generated a powerful response from the United Nations. "This is an extremely escalatory step," said a spokesman, Alexander Ivanko. "These are attacks that come from across an internationally recognized border."

The United Nations enclave of Gorazde, which Western leaders have pledged to defend with air strikes if it is attacked, remained quiet, while the remaining safe area of Zepa continued to take a pounding from Bosnian Serb forces. They continued to lob shells into the small village in an effort to force a contingent of Bosnian Government troops to surrender. They have refused to lay down their arms after Bosnian Serbs said they would detain all men between the ages of 16 and 55 from the village.

No move was made to intervene in Bihac or Zepa.

The British and French troops in Sarajevo are under orders to protect United Nations installations and convoys that come under attack from the Bosnian Serbs. United Nations officials said they will not be used to protect the 280,000 people in Sarajevo from attack by Bosnian Serb gunners and snipers.

In this city, where an average of six people die each day and another dozen or more are wounded, many are cynical about the infusion of new troops.

"We have never seen the U.N. do much more than talk," said Miriam Davic, a judge. "People do not expect much from the U.N. troops moving up to Mount Igman. We have given up on anyone from the outside coming to our rescue."

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A version of this article appears in print on July 25, 1995, on Page A00006 of the National edition with the headline: CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: THE FIGHTING; British Set Guns Near Sarajevo But Serbs Keep On Shelling. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe